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Throughout the London region, construction crews are burrowing tunnels, laying track and beginning to build new stations as part of the largest addition to the city's public transportation system since World War II.

A rendering of Henderson Global Investors' planned redevelopment of buildings at the historic Smithfield Market in Farringdon

But even before the crews arrived, investors were making big bets on how the new system, named Crossrail, will change the game board of one of the biggest real-estate markets in the world. Speculators have been bidding up values of properties near the new stations on the route.

Developers including Derwent London and Great Portland Estates are moving ahead with plans for big mixed-use projects, believing that Crossrail will increase tenant demand. "We always bought in these areas" near planned Crossrail stations, says John Burns, Derwent's chief executive. "But when Crossrail started to become more than an idea, we started to buy more."

Last summer in Farringdon, the former Guardian newspaper headquarters was put up for sale and more than 20 investors submitted bids. The winning bid, by Viridis Real Estate, was for £29m ($47.1m), £5m more than the asking price.

David Hookey, a broker at property consultancy DTZ who worked on the deal, says the Crossrail station planned nearby boosted interest. "It was one of the most competitively chased properties in the market last year," he says. "To get so far above the asking price was quite unexpected."

Scheduled to open in 2018, Crossrail will bring new connections and capacity to the region's existing rail network, partly by adding about 21 kilometers of new tunnels under central and southeast London. They will connect a system that will have a total length of 117 kilometers with 37 stations, eight of them new.

The government of Prime Minister David Cameron is moving ahead with the £15bn project because it believes that modern rail is critical to London's growth and economic health. Planners say Crossrail will help London compete with other global financial centers by easing congestion on the existing rail network and reducing the travel time between destinations.

The project already is providing much-needed jobs in the city's construction industry, which is struggling with the UK's weak economy. In 2012, the City of London—the central financial district—had the lowest level of new office building completions in 25 years, according to property consultancy Drivers Jonas Deloitte.

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Proponents of the project also contend that it will open up new parts of London for development. An October report by consultancy GVA, commissioned by Crossrail, estimated the new project could increase the capital value of residential property in central London by as much as 25% near some stations and boost the capital value of office buildings near stations in the city by as much as 10% over the next decade.

But Crossrail could wind up being a boondoggle. Detractors say it is too expensive and serves stations that already exist along London's subway and regional rail lines.

Moreover, real estate experts note that some property owners will benefit at the expense of others once the new system opens. For example, a big winner is expected to be property owners in the Canary Wharf area, which is getting a new station that will make travel to the commercial hub much faster. For example, the trip from Heathrow Airport to Canary Wharf will be shortened to about 40 minutes from one hour.

But that could hurt other landlords because Canary Wharf's rents are lower than in other office centers. "People don't talk about the losers here," says John Lutzius, an analyst with Green Street Advisors. "But one potential negative [for other landlords] is that the low-cost market is becoming more accessible."

Mega-development plans in London have had a mixed record over the past 25 years. The Canary Wharf office development struggled for years, but finally gained traction and is now home to some of the city's top financial-services companies. More recently, the city spent roughly £6.5bn building venues and infrastructure for last summer's Olympics. The games were a hit as a sporting event, but it is too early to tell whether they will lead to a long-term improvement to East London, the rundown section of the city where events were mostly held.

Another new station will be in the Olympic Park area. "The UK government is very good at investing public money to create the infrastructure that allows private investment to happen in those areas," says Peter Lowy, chief executive of Westfield Group, which invested £1.5bn in a retail and entertainment complex next to the Olympic Park, Europe's largest urban shopping center.

The idea of connecting key hubs on the east and west sides of London dates back to the days of Winston Churchill and evolved over decades into a plan to link stops in the center of the city with regional stations.

The plan finally reached critical mass in 2008 when it was approved by Parliament, allowing the project to be funded by future fares, taxpayers and a special levy on businesses in London. Crossrail is expected to carry 200 million passengers a year, increasing the city's rail passenger capacity by 10%.

Success also will be gauged by the response of private real estate developers. The Crossrail system owns 12 sites near its stations on which it is planning to develop some 230,000 square meters of commercial, residential and retail space.

Crossrail already has worked with developers at five sites and plans to begin marketing a site in Farringdon in late 2013. It hopes to raise £500m through selling land and participating in joint-venture developments.

Derwent is planning a 25,500 square-meter project on top of the planned new Crossrail station at Tottenham Court Road, and Great Portland plans to submit an application to the city in 2013 for a mixed-use project on a 0.9 hectare site it owns nearby.

Meanwhile, near the planned station at Farringdon, Henderson Global Investors is planning two office and retail developments, and a partnership between Axa Real Estate Managers and the family trust of Iranian and British academic Nasser Khalili is building a 19,500-square-meter office project. Goldman Sachs also owns a site in the area that could house a 93,000 square-meter project.

But some experts point out these projects are still are far from a sure thing given the economic uncertainty and Crossrail's construction schedule. Investors could get burned if Crossrail ridership falls below expectations or if the project faces delays.

"Crossrail is still in 2017 or 2018 at the earliest," says Tony McCurley, partner at property firm GM Real Estate. "So at the moment, it's speculation."